Getting crispy, chewy pizza at home in your oven is doable with this Crispy Sheet Pan Pizza! It’s tasty and completely adaptable to your favorite toppings! It’s low effort, baked in your sheet pan and ready to feed a crowd!
Keep it plain with cheese and marinara sauce to make it kid friendly or get super creative with your favorite flavors. What’s great about this recipe is that if you prep the dough (10 minutes) the day before, making it a dinner option is really easy. We love having this instead of ordering pizza. It’s easy to make and serve!
Why you’ll love Crispy Sheet Pan Pizza!
A sheet pan pizza is a thicker pizza but still gives you that nice crispy bottom that you love about pizza. This recipe in fact is made out of my Focaccia dough and spread out thinner on a half sheet baking tray. I like topping mine with my favorite Marinara Sauce and three cheeses! You can top yours with whatever you like!
Some of the things I love about this pizza are:
- Chewy – considering it’s no-knead it’s surprisingly chewy.
- Crispy – bakes nice and crispy on top and underneath because it’s baked before the toppings are added.
- Crowd Pleasing – this pizza is designed to be easy to slice and serve.
- Make ahead! – you can make the dough up to 72 hours in advance and store in the fridge. You can even bake it the day before. Let it cool completely before wrapping in plastic wrap and storing in the fridge until you’re ready to finish baking!
Simple Ingredients for Crispy Sheet Pan Pizza
Note: the whole recipe, including the ingredient quantities, can be found at the bottom of this page – just scroll down to the bottom, or click the ‘Jump to Recipe’ button at the top of this post.
- All-purpose flour – you can use bread flour for a chewier and crispier bread but you still get a great result from using regular all-purpose, also known as plain flour.
- Sugar – I used regular granulated sugar.
- Salt – I used fine salt.
- Instant dry yeast – is sold in the baking isle of your supermarket. It is a dry form of yeast that when activated with wet ingredients creates gas and helps baked goods rise.
- Warm water – also known as lukewarm water sits between 36-40C/98-105F on a thermometer and helps provide the best temperature for yeast to activate.
- Olive oil – I used extra virgin olive oil. Don’t be light handed with the oil. It ads so much flavor!
- Marinara Sauce – You can use store bought, but it pales in flavor compared to homemade! Luckily, I have a great recipe here on the blog and it can be made in advance!
- Cheddar cheese – I like using Colby. Make sure you freshly grate your cheese. Don’t use store bought shredded cheese, they add things in there to stop it from clumping back together before you buy it. If you want to bake it less than I did and don’t like it crispy, put it in the same time as the mozzarella.
- Mozzarella – for this recipe you want to use low-moisture mozzarella. You can buy this as knots or blocks at cheese shops or supermarkets and is not surrounded by its own brine like fresh mozzarella. I like to slice mine, but you can grate it as well if you like. I don’t like my mozzarella crispy, so I bake it for the final 10 minutes of baking.
- Basil – I like adding my basil right before slicing for added visual flair and most importantly flavor!
- Italian herbs – I love sprinkling a generous amount of this on top of my pizza right before serving for added flavor! It’s optional but makes things even tastier!
How to make this Crispy Sheet Pan Pizza!
- Mix your dry ingredients together
- Add the yeast water
- Mix until a sticky dough forms
- Cover with generous amount of oil
- Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight (important step, don’t skip!)
- It will double in size
- Punch the dough down and grab one end of it and gently stretch up as much as you can without it breaking
- Fold over itself. Do this another 4-8 times. It helps develop the gluten for a chewier, crustier pizza crust.
- Coat your half sheet pan with olive oil.
- Take your dough out and thaw at room temperature for 20 minutes before gently stretching across the sheet pan. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t go perfectly to every corner.
- Cover with another baking sheet or loosely with plastic wrap that’s been well oiled so it doesn’t stick.
- It will double in size.
- Add half of the Marinara Sauce in dabs
- Then use your fingers to indent the dough. It will bubble. Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly golden.
- Take out of the oven and add grated cheddar cheese and freshly grated parmesan cheese. Bake for another 10 minutes.
- Take out of the oven for a final time and add some mozzarella slices. Bake for a final 10 minutes or until mozzarella is melted and bubbly.
- Take out of the oven and garnish with basil leaves and Italian herbs.
Tips and Tricks For Recipe Success!
- Measure using kitchen scales – this recipe needs accurate measurements and cup measurements just don’t offer that. Use kitchen scales to get the same exact results as I did!
- Let your dough come to room temperaturebefore stretching in the tin. It will prevent it from tearing. It can take anywhere between 10-20 minutes depending on the weather.
- Make sure your oven is well heated – it can take 30 minutes for your oven to preheat properly so turn it on well before you’re ready to bake so it reaches a high temperature.
- Don’t go overboard with the sauce – especially with the first bake as it can weight the dough down and stop it from rising. That first layer of sauce is designed to just stop the focaccia from burning on top and adds extra flavor.
- If using mozzarella, use low-moisture mozzarella that is not stored in it’s own brine otherwise it will make your pizza soggy.
- Rotate the pizza halfway through the first bake to get an even bake.
- Don’t use pre-grated cheeses as they can have additives to stop the cheese from clumping. They also don’t melt as well as cheese that you grate yourself.
- Grease the baking sheet with oil really well. Otherwise, your pizza will stick. It also helps give you a nice crispy bottom.
How do I store this?
It’s a scientific fact that cold pizza is delicious, and this recipe is no exception. Store cooled leftover pizza in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for up to 3 days. In the freezer for up to 2 months. Thaw in the fridge and reheat in the oven.
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Crispy Sheet Pan Pizza
Getting crispy, chewy pizza at home in your oven is doable with this Crispy
Sheet Pan Pizza! It’s tasty and completely adaptable to your favorite toppings! It’s low effort, baked in your sheet pan and ready to feed a crowd!
Servings 12
Calories 328kcal
Ingredients
Pizza Base
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (bread flour for a chewier bread)
- 2 tsp sugar
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp instant dry yeast (see notes)
- 2 1/4 cups water lukewarm (36-40C/98-105F on a thermometer)
- 8 tbsp olive oil extra virgin
Toppings
- 1 cup Marinara Sauce
- 1 cup cheddar cheese, freshly grated
- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese finely grated
- 2 cups low moisture mozzarella sliced
- Fresh basil leaves
- 1 tbsp Italian herbs
Instructions
- Note: For best results. This recipe should be weighed using kitchen scales. Yes, even the water. For Googles sake I’ve included cup measurements. Ignore them, get scales!
Pizza Base
- Add the flour, salt, sugar and yeast to a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine.
- To a jug combine 1 cup boiling water and 1 1/4 cups of cold water to get lukewarm water.
- Add the water to the dry ingredients and use your hand to mix until a very wet and sticky dough forms. Use a spatula to scrape the side and make sure everything (including any ingredients at the bottom of the bowl) have been mixed in properly.
- Cover the dough with 2 tbsp olive oil. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight. Can be left in the fridge for up to 72 hours for optimum flavor!
- Take the dough out of the fridge and unwrap (keep your plastic wrap!) and use wet hands to stretch the dough up and then over itself. Do this on each 4 sides. This will help develop gluten strands to make the dough even chewier! Cover with plastic wrap and rest for 20 minutes to let it come to room temperature.
- Grease a half sheet pan with 2 tbsp of olive oil or a half sheet baking tray with a 1-inch rim with olive oil. Pour the room temperature dough on top of your baking sheet and use your hands to spread or stretch out as much as you can. If it’s not perfectly at each corner, it’s ok! Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest between 1-2 hours in a warm spot. It will puff up, rise and bubble.
- 30 minutes before you’re ready to bake preheat a fan forced oven to 200C/400F (220C/430F for no fan).
- Bake 20 minutes: Once risen, add half the marinara sauce in blotches. Use your fingers to indent the dough. Bubbles will appear. You can pop those or leave them. Place in the middle rack of your oven and bake for 20 minutes.
- 10-minute bake: Take out of the oven, sprinkle grated cheddar cheese (this is when you would add your favorite veggies), and sprinkle with some freshly grated parmesan. Bake for 10 minutes.
- Final bake: Take out for a final time to add slices of mozzarella. Bake for a final 10 minutes until mozzarella is melted. This final bake will also make your cheddar cheese nice and crispy! Take out of the oven and garnish with basil and more dabs of marinara sauce. I like sprinkling some Italian herbs and drizzling with truffle flavored oil.
Notes
Storage - Pizza is best served hot, but can be stored in an airtight container and kept in the fridge for up to three days. Eat cold or reheat in the oven!
Nutrition - is based on per slice. This pizza makes 12 slices!
A note on measurements - all ingredients in this recipe are offered in Australian cup measurements and weight measurements. Weight measurements are created by me, in my kitchen here in Melbourne Australia. The best way to get recipe success is to measure ingredients by weight, using kitchen scales.
Nutrition
Calories: 328kcal | Carbohydrates: 31g | Protein: 12g | Fat: 17g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 23mg | Sodium: 714mg | Potassium: 141mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 320IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 239mg | Iron: 2mg
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